Happy Birthday Vidya!

It's been a year full of work, and also link-ups, for the birthday girl, Vidya Balan.

But on the whole, she's happy that it's the work that gets more copy than the link-ups.

"I have just laughed at the rumours and am glad that it is my work that is generating more interest these days. As far as spicing up my life is concerned, leave that to me. I guess it's high time I spice up my life on my own," Vidya laughs.

Considering Vidya turns 30 today, she would have loads of opportunity to do that by living it up. But that's not what she's doing.

"I don't generally have bashes or gala parties on my birthday," she says. "Like always, I am going to be with my parents and close friends. I'm planning to take my parents out of town for a couple of days, that's all."

Vidya believes that if you begin the new year with a particular routine, then that's what you're going to do for the rest of the year too!

"And that's why, I'm going to spend the day exercising, reading books, listening to my favourite music and generally having a very busy day."

But the year gone by will always be very special for her - the year of her good five major releases (Guru, Salaam-e-Ishq, Eklavya, Heyy Babyy, Bhool Bhulaiyaa) and a special appearance in Shah Rukh Khan's Om Shanti Om.

"If Halla Bol had been released, it would have been six. I did a lot of different roles and experimented a lot in 2007. I have learnt how to handle a choc-a-bloc schedule."

She feels that she's also not as guarded as she used to be when she joined the industry.

"I guess when you are introduced to something new, you take time to explore it. But now, I have become more assertive," she says.

Bollywood Buzz wishes Vidya a very Happy Birthday :o)

Vidya Balan speaks about Laaga Chunari Mein Daag

Vidya Balan laughs off allegations that she opted out of Pradeep Sarkar's Laaga Chunari Mein Daag because she didn't want to play second lead in a Rani Mukerji starrer.

"I actually can't believe I'm not doing Sarkar's film. There's no way I could've let this happen. But dada (Sarkar) wanted to complete the film within a certain period and those dates were committed to Sajid Khan's Hey Baby a year back," Vidya explains. In Hey Baby, she had to coordinate her dates with co-stars Akshay Kumar, Fardeen Khan and Kunal Kapoor.

"In dada's film my dates had to be coordinated with Jayaji (Bachchan), Rani, Abhishek Bachchan and Kunal. Both projects needed chunk dates. Not doing dada's film wasn't an easy call to take. When people say it's shocking to hear that I'm not in dada's film, do they realise how shocking it is for me? You can't believe how awful I felt to not be in it. Inshallah, I'll be in his next. They tell me they miss me there. To even talk about it makes me emotional."

As for rumours about why she didn't do the project, Vidya has only one thing to say, "As long as dada and I know the truth it doesn't matter. Gossip is a full-time vocation."

After Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Vidya has almost completed another socially relevant film. She's excited about Raj Kumar Santoshi's Halla Bol. "Santoshi's films have always had a very high level of social relevance. I'm so happy to be working with him. I was fully aware that it's the story of the male protagonist's journey from real to reel hero. It's Ajay Devgan's film. I'm the wife but my character is integral to the film.

"Like I always say, the true barometer of a role is not its length but how much of a difference it makes to the plot. And if you take away my role from Halla Bol, it makes a difference. I don't mind doing one scene as long as that scene makes an impact."

Vidya and her new-found hobby

Actress Vidya Balan's found a new hobby: telling tales to kids. Varsha Pillai from CNN-IBN caught the actress recording short stories for children as part of the audio book series created by Karadi Tales.

Narrating children's stories had Vidya going down memory lane. "My father used to narrate a lot of stories and we used to torture him to tell us the crow story,” she says.

And no prizes for guessing what her favourite story is. "The crow story. It’s a very intelligent crow and the crow puts pebbles in the pot. As you can see I cannot narrate a tale properly without a script,” she says.

Besides Vidya, the series called Will You Read With Me has the likes of actors Sanjay Dutt, Naseerudin Shah and lyricist Gulzar turning into storytellers.

"This is a set of stories where you have somebody who the child holds in great esteem,” said director of Karadi Tales, Shobha Vishwanath.

And with Shahrukh Khan all set to tell tales for Karadi next, the kids should have no problem getting back to those books!

Vidya Balan smooches and changes her image

While the industry is abuzz speculating on the chemistry between Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, off-screen and onscreen (in Guru), someone else from the cast of Guru is basking in the glory of all the sizzle in the film. No it’s not Mallika Sherawat but the striking Vidya Balan.

Right from Parineeta to Lage Raho Munnabhai, we have known Vidya Balan as the beautiful girl-next-door. But her traditional girl image might change with her next film Guru where she has a smooch scene. She has a lip-lock with R. Madhavan in the film.

This is the first onscreen kiss for Vidya. In the film, Madhavan proposes to Vidya and this is followed by a kiss. Interestingly, Madhavan had a similar scene with Soha Ali Khan in Rang De Basanti in which they both kiss after Madhavan proposes Soha to marry him.

So while the Hrithik-Aishwarya smooch in Dhoom 2 was talked about more than anything else in the film, will Abhishek miss out in Guru too, with the Vidya-Madhavan kiss generating more hype? Only time will tell…

Ajay woos Vidya Balan in Haji Ali

Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai is a monument of faith that is crowded with people all year round.

But when Ajay Devgan and Vidya Balan came to shoot Rajkumar Santoshi's Halla Bol, the crowd gathered at the spot to catch a glimpse of their favourite star.

But what brought the team to Haji Ali?

“We are shooting for a portion of a song that comes in the pre-climax of the movie at Haji Ali,” Vidya Balan said.

Halla Bol is one of the few films that has attempted to explore the underbelly of Bollywood.

“My character is that of a struggling actor, who becomes a star and gets corrupted because of power and money. But something happens in his life that compels him to fight the truth and how he comes back to what he was,” says Ajay Devgan.

Sabri Brothers, famous for their sufi music and qawaali have been invited from Pakistan to add that flavour of authenticity to this scene.

After the debacle of Family, Halla Bol is an important film for Santoshi, who's made his mark with films like Ghayal, Damini and Ghatak.

Vidya Balan plays a disabled character in Guru

Mani Ratnam’s Guru is already in news for the controversy relating to the story of the film. The film has also attracted a lot of attention due to its huge starcast which includes Mithun Chakraborty, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, R.Madhavan and Vidya Balan among others.

The latest news is that Vidya plays a disabled character in the film. She plays the character of Meenu who moves around on a wheel chair.

Apart from Guru, Vidya will also be seen in Nikhil Advani’s Salaam-E-Ishq and Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Ek Lavya-The Royal Guard which are scheduled to release next year.

Vidya Balan in MMS row

After the smashing success of Lage Raho Munnabhai, Vidya Balan has been caught in an ugly row.

According to the recent buzz, a one-minute hot video clip of a woman, bearing close resemblance to Vidya, is doing the rounds on the Internet and on MMS-enabled mobile phones in Chennai.

However, sources close to the heroine of Parineeta fame have been quick to debunk the video as morphed or fake. Whether morphed or look alike, the MMS clip is doing rounds among the youngsters in Chennai. According to youngsters who regularly received such clips, they prefer MMS clips of actors and famous models.

In the past, Mallika Sherawat and Priety Zinta too had MMSs of their look-alikes doing the rounds and a MMS had also come to the fore which allegedly showed Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor smooching.

When contacted, Sanjay, secretary to Vidya, said, ‘‘She (Vidya) is busy shooting here (in Mumbai) and does not want to react to this. The issue is totally irrelevant to her and we do not want to encourage any discussion on the topic.’’

Vidya in 'Lage Raho'... remake

Vidya Balan will star opposite Chiranjeevi in Prabhudeva's Telugu remake of 'Lage Raho Munnabhai', titled 'Shankardada Zindabad'. The only difference here is that Vidya will play a vibrant radio jockey for Surya FM, the radio channel owned by the Sun-Gemini network. Chiranjeevi also featured in the Telugu 'Munnabhai MBBS' (titled 'Shankardada MBBS').